The secret of a happy marriage is finding the right person. You know they’re right if you love to be with them all the time. ~ Julia Child

I’d like to give a big shout out to mom and dad, a.k.a. Gigi and pappy. Today marks their forty-fourth wedding anniversary! They were married in 1969 at Sacred Heart Church in Youngstown, Pennsylvania.

Mom & dad in Germany in the early 1970s. The caption read at Carol & Lynn’s Party … looked like they had a good time!

Besides my parents getting married, which six years later became my birthday, what else was going on in 1969? According to Google, Wikipedia and all other “reliable” internet sources, 1969 was a full year.

Richard Nixon was our 37th president

1st man landed on the moon on the Apollo 11 mission by the United States – Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin – 1st humans to set foot on the moon

In August, more than a half a million people gathered in the small town of Bethel, in upstate New York better known as Woodstock

250,000 marched on Washington in protest against the Vietnam War

The US institutes the draft lottery to determine draft into US Forces for Vietnam War (dad just signed up for the Army)

The very 1st United States troop, withdrawals are made from Vietnam

The FCC banned all cigarette advertising on television and radio (good thing!)

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) established

Top movies included Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Wild Bunch and Easy Rider

One of the top books was Mario Puzo’s Godfather

On August 9th, members of a cult led by Charles Manson murder 5 people (I read the book Helter Skelter a couple of times, scary interesting)

Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast killing 248 people

Militant black students at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York use force to take over Willard Straight Hall demanding a black studies program

Cost of new house $15,550.00

Average income per year $8,550.00

Average monthly rent $135.00

Average cost new car $3,270.00

Gas per gallon $.35 (That’s a huge change at about $3.45 per gallon now)

Me (4 yrs old) in my cute little Christmas outfit. Check out the plastic clip on earrings! Dad was holding Ryan (3yrs old) & Nicole (6 yrs old), like usual was cut off from the picture. We were at gram & paps house on the ridge. 1979

Yes, on the exact same day only six years later on December 12th, in 1975 I was born. I guess it’s no surprise that I really enjoy winter and the snow, after all I came into this world with that as my backdrop. At this point mom and dad moved back to the United States after living in Germany for two years while dad was in the Army. They lived in the same house that my grandpap Chester built, the same one they live in, to this very day. What else was going on in 1975?

Vietnam War ends as Communist forces take Saigon and South Vietnam surrenders unconditionally

The United States carries out Vietnam “Operation Babylift” bringing Vietnamese orphans to the US

The United States pulls out of Cambodia

New York City avoids bankruptcy when President Gerald R. Ford signed a $2.3 billion loan

The unemployment rate in the US reaches 9.2% and recession is recognized by President Ford

Jimmy Hoffa (ex teamsters boss) disappears never to be seen again

Patti Hearst becomes most wanted and is arrested for armed robbery

Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath for the leadership of the opposition UK Conservative Party (Thatcher was 49 and Britain’s 1st female leader of any political party)

Average cost of new house $39,300.00

Average income per year $14,100.00

Average monthly rent $200.00

Average cost new car $4,250.00

Cost of a gallon of gas $.44 (an so the spiking gas prices begins)

The UK implements the Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Act

Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins

Bill Gates and Paul Allen develop a BASIC program for the Altair 8800

Motorolla obtains patent for the first portable mobile phone

The name “Micro-soft” (for microcomputer software) and Microsoft becomes a registered trademark

Sony introduces Betamax videotapes and Matsushita / JVC introduce VHS

Cray-1, the first commercially developed supercomputer, invented by Seymour Cray